Sunday, September 22, 2013

Small Ships

Last week at our regular game, Jaye started talking about doing small ship battles using rules in Rockets Red Glare, a set of rules for the War of 1812.

One thing holding us back from this is that we don't have any ships. There are commercial ships available, but they tend to be a bit pricey, and a more toward the larger side than we need.

I thought I would make an attempt to scratch build something that would work.

This is my first attempt. Its a bit rough. I made the sides too high, and had to trim them off with scissors. They are just made of cardboard. I think it will look better with some cannons and some 15mm crew. For scale, its about 6 inches long and 2 inches wide. I also need to do something about sails.

As for cost, most of it was stuff I had. There is a layer of balsa and a layer of 3mm light ply. The masts and spars are dowels. All in all, its less than $3 of materials.

I have 2 more cut out and waiting to be built. Another one this size, and a larger ship about 10 inches long that will be a brig with about 5 guns per side.

If the guys think that this will be acceptable, I will go into production mode and make about a dozen in various sizes.